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Bird is reportedly laying off almost a quarter of its staff
Bird, the rental service for electric scooters, is one of the latest companies in the tech industry to lay off quite a big percentage of its workforce.
Amazon will reimburse employee travel for abortions and non-life threatening treatments
It now offers $4,000 in annual travel reimbursements to employees in the US.
Namco Bandai turns into Bandai Namco on April 1
Namco Bandai officially announced plans to change its name to Bandai Namco. The change, which spans the company's many regional subsidiaries, will go into effect on April 1. Yes, that's April Fool's Day. No, we're pretty sure Namco Ban – sorry, Bandai Namco is serious here. The publisher was the result of a merger between Namco and Bandai in September 2005. The umbrella company's logo, seen above, will be used for all of the publisher's products going forward. Up until this point, Namco Bandai used its traditional, individual Namco and Bandai logos on some of its games. For instance, Tales of Xillia sported a Namco logo, while Dark Souls featured the Namco Bandai one. [Image: Bandai Namco]
Court puts a stop to Activision Blizzard independence
So here's a short story for the morning told over one act. First, Activision Blizzard announces that it is separating from its parent company Vivendi and going independent, which surprises many people. Then a shareholder sues the company to prevent this from happening, claiming that it's a huge waste meant to cover a power grab. As a result, the separation is now officially on hold by the order of the Delaware Chancery Court, which was probably not the result most people had expected thus far. In order for the separation to continue, either the injunction must be modified on appeal or a majority vote by non-Vivendi stockholders must come down in favor of continuing the process. Activision Blizzard's representatives restated that they were dedicated to this course of action and are exploring options to ensure it still takes place. Vivendi has been trying to divest itself of Activision Blizzard for nearly a year now in hopes of boosting its overall stock price.
Official Grepolis client coming soon to iOS
I met with the German company Innogames a few years ago at GDC, where the company told me it was eventually planning to bring out some of its browser-based strategy titles to iOS. I haven't heard much from Innogames since, until today: The company has announced that its next mobile title will be a client for Grepolis, one of the most popular games in its lineup. Grepolis is enormously popular overseas, especially among European gamers (the title claims over 20 million registered users), and in addition to Innogames' other mobile-enabled title, Tribal Wars, it should significantly grow the company's audience on iOS. There's already an app from Innogames called the Grepolis Toolbox available on the App Store, but it's really just a companion app for the game, and this upcoming app will be a full client, allowing users to log in and play directly on the iPhone and the iPad. Innogames hasn't announced a release date for the app just yet, but it's scheduled to show the client off during E3, so we can probably expect it to be available on the App Store soon after that.
Twin Galaxies accepting record score submissions, now at a cost
Legendary arcade scoring organization Twin Galaxies had to take a break from tracking scores for about six months as the company went through a transition last year, but as of last week it's back in business and ready for score submissions.There is one catch, however. The company charge to report your scores: $25 for one submission, $60 for three submissions, or $75 for five submissions. Each score submission requires video proof – you may include more than one score in the video – but each video can only cover one game. If you want to submit both Donkey Kong and Rampage scores, for example, you'll need to pay twice.The new ownership says the old database was "damaged yet not completely irretrievable," and the fees will go towards smoothing out the verification process and evolving the website "beyond its status as the premier competitive scoring service, and into an interactive gaming platform."So, think you can do better than Hank Chien?
Glassdoor: Apple employees love Tim Cook
Glassdoor is a site that allows employees of various corporations to rate how they think their management is doing (while remaining anonymous), and the company has shared some info with TUAW that it says comes out of Apple's campus in Cupertino. The site works kind of like Yelp for employees, as users can come along and leave ratings and reviews for their own company. But presumably this information came from anyone who works for Apple, not just the employees that work directly with CEO Tim Cook in California. And what's the word? In short, they love him. Cook has never had anything less than a 92% approval rating since this time last year, and his current approval rating sits at 93% among employees leaving reviews on Glassdoor. During his time overseeing the company, Steve Jobs held a 97% approval rating, and Cook is a few points below that, but still -- Apple employees think he's doing a great job. Glassdoor also shared a few comments from users who identified as employees actually working in Cupertino, and they called Cook "a CEO who demands work before 6 a.m. everyday, and 'accountability without control'." Another engineer from Cupertino said that "no work/life balance is to be expected at Apple," and that management required employees to be "reachable after work hours." But despite those extra requirements, employees in general seem like enjoy Cook's management. Obviously, these reviewers are all basically self-selected, and like Yelp, this is not exactly an objective look at exactly what the entire company thinks of how things are going over there. But as far as this data goes, it seems like Cook has the support of his employees, and those choosing to report from inside Apple are happy with where the company is at.
From the Apple shareholders' meeting: Approvals, 'new categories' and another campus delay
The Apple shareholders' meeting was held in Cupertino earlier today, and CNBC has a full liveblog of all of the proceedings. There wasn't a lot of hard news out of the meeting, as most of it was taken up with bureaucratic goings-on, including the approval of a certain accounting firm, a few votes on executive payments and the defeat of a proposal to create a Human Rights board committee at the company. All of Apple's directors were re-elected, and Tim Cook got a 99.1 percent approval rating from investors there. After the meeting, Cook took some questions from shareholders and answered them. He agreed that Apple is just as disappointed as investors in "where the stock trades now versus a few months ago -- but we're focused on the long term." Cook crowed about Apple's huge growth so far, and promised that "obviously we're looking at new categories -- we don't talk about them, but we're looking at them." Finally, Cook gave an update on Apple's new campus, saying that the work is ongoing, but it's proving to be a much bigger project than expected. Last we heard, the project was set to be all done in 2015, but Cook now says that, "I project that we will move in, in 2016." You can read through all of the notes of the meeting on CNBC's site. [via MacRumors]
Apple R&D spending spiked at the end of 2012
Apple may be on the top of its game lately, but that doesn't mean the company isn't still looking forward. According to the LA Times, the company from Cupertino has jumped up its research and development spending over the last quarter, by a whopping 33 percent. According to the most recent earnings statement, Apple raised the R&D budget by $252 million to more than $1 billion, which is even higher than the 32% jump in the previous year. Clearly, Apple's got something brewing in the R&D department lately. But of course, there's no telling exactly what. For its part, Apple says the increased spending is due to "an increase in headcount and related expenses to support expanded R&D activities," and we already know that Apple's making a big push at a new R&D facility in Israel (not to mention that it's following up on R&D opportunities elsewhere as well). Innovation is a huge part of Apple's success so far, and this increase is spending is just another way Apple's hoping to stay on top. Hopefully we'll see the fruits of this investment at some point in the future. [via Mother Jones]
Apple releases proxy statement in SEC filing
Apple has revealed the first information about its upcoming 2013 fiscal year in a proxy statement filed to the SEC this week. You can read the entire document on the SEC's website, but we can run you through the major points right here and now. First up, Apple discloses what Tim Cook was paid during 2012, and it's a little more than the $1 that Steve Jobs was officially paid to run the company (though of course Steve made much more than that in various bonuses and perks). In 2012, Cook's base salary was $1.4 million, up $900,000 from the year before. Bonuses for senior execs reached maximums of 100 percent and 200 percent, and the base salary of the major executives went up as well, from $800,000 to $875,000, due to the "additional responsibilities" the team took on last year. The statement also detailed the package that helped entice Senior Vice President Bob Mansfield to stay with the company, which included a modification of Mansfield's stocks which allowed them to vest earlier than planned, as long as he stays with the company. Finally, the statement announced Apple's first shareholder meeting of 2013, which will take place on February 27 at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino.
Nokia announces Here, a new maps service coming to iOS
Apple's already had plenty of maps-related woes, and here comes what might be even more trouble. At an event in San Francisco, Nokia has announced a brand-new maps service called Here, and in addition to releasing across Nokia's usual platforms, the service also has an iOS app that's already been submitted to Apple and should be available soon. Nokia has also acquired a mapping company named Earthmine that specializes in street-level 3D mapping, so presumably it will be putting them to work on mapping out street locations all over the world for Here. There are also some big pushes to include user-submitted data (including a "Map Creator"), and Nokia will also provide live traffic information and directions (including for mass transit) as needed. The Next Web has a quick run through of Here, although it is not without its own flaws. There's an API for Android, providing a new mapping resource for developers, but the iOS app will actually be an HTML5-based app. Nokia has said its working with Mozilla to bring its maps to Firefox OS, but if you want to sample what is available now, you can check out Here.net in your browser right now. So here's a big push by Nokia on a market that even Apple has floundered in lately. This is a big bet, but it's possible that Nokia, of all companies, could end up filling in with a great maps solution where Apple's own system has had a few missteps. [via Engadget]
Former president of Square Enix calls corporate merger a disaster
Corporate mergers always create hard feelings. Combining two separate groups of people into a single culture is naturally going to generate some feelings that the companies were better off apart. That's certainly the case for Hisashi Suzuki, the former president of Square Enix who recently called the merger of the two companies a "complete failure" via Twitter, claiming that the company has absolutely no vision for the future. It's undeniable that the studio has seen some titles with poor reception in recent years, with Final Fantasy XIV's launch proving a major misstep for the company at the time (and being the most relevant to the MMO industry). At the same time, Suzuki left the company seven years ago, and the company is in the process of completely revamping Final Fantasy XIV following the mistakes of launch. Whether or not Suzuki is correct or simply a bit bitter after the fact falls to personal interpretation.
LucasArts President Paul Meegan leaves the company
LucasArts President Paul Meegan has decide to vacate his position at the House that Star Wars Built. COO Mich Chau says that the company wishes Meegan "the best in his future endeavors," and "will be re-evaluating LucasArts' leadership needs" in the future. This is the second big exit from LucasArts this summer: Creative Lead Clint Hocking also left the studio just recently. Meegan replaced Darrell Rodriguez, who, like Meegan, left the company after two years as president.Meegan's LinkedIn page now lists him as a "CEO/President, Entrepreneur," and a "Change Agent," apparently looking for a new company. Considering Meegan helped found Epic Games China and has overseen studios at Ubisoft and Jaleco in the past, we're sure he'll land on his feet.
Jason Citron picks up funding with new gaming company Phoenix Guild
Jason Citron was one of the iPhone's first big name developers. He and partner Danielle Cassley created a game called Aurora Feint way back in the early days of the App Store, and while that game didn't do as well as hoped, the duo and their backers eventually catapulted that title into its own social gaming platform called OpenFeint. That platform was later acquired by Japanese social network GREE, and Citron left the company that he originally founded last September. Now, Citron's back with a new venture, called Phoenix Guild. He's working on assembling a team that will, as he says, build "core games for gamers on post-PC devices." Citron's always been a fan of traditional gaming and "really rich, engaging games," and his new company, which was just funded to the tune of $1.1 million by venture capitalists (including his former OpenFeint supporters at YouWeb), is aiming to build those types of core, traditionally console style games for modern mobile devices like Apple's iOS devices and even Microsoft's upcoming Surface console. "It seems obvious to me," Citron says during a chat this week with TUAW, "that core gamers are moving from PCs to other devices and tablets," and Phoenix Guild's goal is to provide great core games on those new platforms. What exactly does Citron mean when he says "core games"? "Mass Effect, Call of Duty, and even Bastion," he says, rattling off a few popular and well-received console titles from the past few years. Citron agrees that you can't just "take what works on an Xbox and put it on an iPad," but he says there's a deeper experience that consoles currently provide that's not yet reflected on a lot of mobile games. Citron's also convinced that free-to-play is the way to go, but he's cautious of doing the model wrong. "You need to do free-to-play in a way that respects players," he says. "Not in a way that makes players feel nickle-and-dimed to death." Citron says on the traditional PC, games like League of Legends and Team Fortress 2 are examples of how to do microtransaction based games correctly, and he wants to bring that generous polish over to tablet-based games as well. Citron can't say anything about what Phoenix Guild's first game is like yet, but he says he's hiring AAA talent (including an artist from id games), and wants to put a solid, very social, very polished free-to-play game together (he even mentions the recent popular Magic: The Gathering iPad app as an example of the kind of game he wants to build, though he says that's not exactly what he's aiming for). So we'll have to wait to see exactly what Citron is building. But he does say that while OpenFeint was a nice success, what he really wants to do is "build a large successful gaming company," not another social gaming platform. OpenFeint came out of the ashes of Aurora Feint, which Citron admits didn't do as well as hoped "because it wasn't free, and because there was no free-to-play at the time." But this time around, while Citron is returning to the original game design ideas he started with, the goal is to aim for what Citron says Blizzard and Valve have built, big game companies founded on quality, classic releases. "I want to have a company like that," he says. It'll be a lot of work for sure, and as much as Citron is convinced there's a large hardcore audience ready to play games like that on mobile devices, he also agrees that it's so far "definitely unproven." And it's possible, he says, that he's wrong, and he's not able to make a company like this. Maybe he'll have to go the way of Aurora Feint, and turn the company he's growing into something else, a separate platform or some other important technology. But he hopes that doesn't happen. "If the universe will permit this sort of game company," Citron says with conviction, "I will build it."
MS teases Windows Phone 8 enterprise features: Company Hub, encryption, secure boot, IT management
At today's Windows Phone Summit, Microsoft alluded to some of the next-gen OS' enterprise features, including a trusted shared Windows core, encryption, secure boot and IT device management. Company VP Joe Belfiore recognized that some business users haven't been satisfied with the operating system's previous suite of enterprise features, and that definitely appears to be one focus of Windows Phone 8. BitLocker Drive Encryption will provide support for device security, while IT administrators will have have the ability to push apps to handsets while sidestepping the Marketplace. Office will also have a greater presence in Windows Phone 8, though we don't know exactly how that will play out just yet. Enterprise clearly hasn't been a primary target of Microsoft's mobile OS to date, but that could very well change beginning this fall. There's also a new Company Hub feature, which will allow companies their own app distribution pipe, as well as giving IT administrators the ability to highlight specific things depending on what's important to their organization. With so many Windows machines in the workplace, it's pretty smart for Microsoft to take a serious dive into this stuff, and it's honestly really slick. There's also a Microsoft IT app, which the company claims will be provided in template form so that outfits can tweak it to fit specific needs. To check out the latest updates from Microsoft's Windows Phone event, visit our liveblog!
Engadget speaks with Twelve South on keeping the company small
Engadget has posted a must-read writeup on one of our favorite companies here at TUAW, Twelve South, the makers of the popular BookBook cases and the PlugBug power accessory for Apple devices. It's long, but it shows how Twelve South is a lesson in focused vision: Making really great high quality products for the Apple audience. It doesn't hurt, of course, that Apple buyers tend to appreciate quality with their wallets, but Twelve South has carved out a really excellent niche for itself over the years. It's also wild to hear the story behind the company: They nabbed a sales deal with Apple even before a production deal was made for their products, and they only solidified that by happening across an extra contact in China. And Twelve South's philosophy of staying Apple is maybe the most interesting thing in the whole writeup. "Every time I'd walk into an Apple Store, I'd see heaps of 'Mac-compatible' accessories," says co-founder Andrew Green. "Mac users don't want compatible. They want exclusive." Twelve South made the commitment to serve Apple users on their own terms, keeping his company small and focused for exactly that reason, and that's partly why Twelve South has seen so much success with its products.
Opening the Book(Book) on Twelve South: between the covers of a Mac-exclusive accessory maker
The year is 2009. In history books, it'll widely be recognized as the year that most of America -- heck, the world -- would prefer to forget. Job after job was lost, bank after bank fell, and humanity as we knew it plunged into "the worst recession since the Great Depression." It's also the year that Palm attempted a comeback with webOS, and as it turns out, the year that yet another accessory company was born. While such an occurrence may be forgettable on a macro scale, economic researchers and lovers of technology alike have reason to take notice -- and, indeed, ask questions. So, that's exactly what I did. Beyond growing a technology startup in a me-too field during the worst economy that I've personally been a part of, it's also not often that I find compelling consumer electronics companies far outside of New York City and San Francisco. Twelve South just so happens to be located in a nondescript nook in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina -- just a beautiful trip over the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge from historic Charleston. Three years after its founding, the company now fittingly counts a dozen employees on its roster, and despite entering a market flooded with iAccessory after iAccessory, it has somehow managed to grab its own slice of an increasingly large niche. As with all good success stories, this particular outfit has plenty of twists, turns and run-ins with Lady Luck to tell about; for those interested in seeing how the "stay small" mantra is keeping Twelve South firmly focused on the future ahead, take a peek beyond the break.
Facebook IPO is official: $38 per share, on sale tomorrow under ticker symbol 'FB'
We largely steer clear of companies going public here at Engadget, but Facebook and its zillions of users warrants an atypical tip of the hat. The outfit has announced that starting tomorrow, 421,233,615 shares of its common stock will be up for grabs at a price to the public of $38 per share. It'll trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol "FB," with the outfit offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling stockholders offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on May 22nd, subject to "customary closing conditions." And with that, we'd like to congratulate a plethora of new billionaires on... well, being billionaires. Don't work too hard, guys and girls. Celebratory video is after the break.
LightSquared officially files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
As expected, May 14th is indeed a dark day for LightSquared. The company has just filed paperwork in order to initiate Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in Manhattan's US Bankruptcy Court, effectively killing its dream of providing a high-speed mobile wireless network to upwards of 260 million people. Not quite a year after Sprint and LightSquared put together an agreement that would ensure 15 years of blissful LTE enjoyment together, Philip Falcone's baby looks weaker than ever. With the Sprint tie-up now void, and over $1.6 billion in debt, there's probably not too many places for LS to turn. The primary hurdle -- one it never could seem to overcome -- was the FCC's outright refusal to believe any of the company's mitigation proposals in relation to GPS interference issues. Despite "profoundly disagreeing" and raising all sorts of chaos in an effort to get its way, LightSquared never did manage to convince the powers that mattered. Where it turns from here is anyone's guess, but it won't be a quiet fall from grace, we're surmising.
ATD: Yahoo's CEO Scott Thompson to step down amidst degree scandal (update: confirmed)
While thousands upon thousands of Americans are celebrating graduation weekend with degree in hand, it looks as if the CEO of one particular internet company will be wondering why he lied about his. After weeks of investigating, word on the street has it that freshly appointed (as in January 4th) CEO Scott Thompson will be "stepping down." In other words, he's being canned. The news comes from an All Things D report on the matter, with the official word expected soon. The scandal took hold a few weeks back, with the official Yahoo bio listing a computer science degree that he allegedly didn't even have. The company line is that he's bolting for "personal reasons," but seriously -- what are the chances these "reasons" would've emerged sans scandal? It's bruited that Yahoo's global media head Ross Levinsohn will be filling Scott's shoes for now, but there's no word yet on who the firm's next CEO will be. It's a shame, but it sure feels like a revolving door in Yahoo's corner office. Update: Yahoo has confirmed Thompson's departure in an official press release (after the break), placing Ross Levinsohn in a interim CEO position, as expected. The firm also mentions that Roy Bostock's seat as Chairman of the board will be filled by Fred Amoroso. Hit the break for the official statement.
